Absolutely No Reason

There was no reason for this shot to be taken-just some good old fashioned family time with Dad.  Love every single person in this picture to pieces!

Meeting Baby Dallin

I got to go meet my newest nephew today-baby Dallin!  Kristen had a super quick delivery and Dallin was here in no time at all.  I love visiting new moms and babies in the hospital, so I was glad to go visit with my mom and several other family members tonight.  Dallin is such a sweetie-complete with that newborn smell that makes any mom's heart sing!  I have recently started to miss the idea of having babies in the house-not actually birthing babies, but just having a baby around.  The further I get from bearing children, the more I realize how special that first year is, and how quickly it passes.  It is easy to be overwhelmed during that time period, to the point where it might not be savored as much as it should be.  I know our family is complete, and I am quietly content with that realization.  I also appreciate, to a greater degree, every moment of Jackson's development, and even James as they quickly hurdle out of their younger years.  Even with the older kids-I realize this time is passing faster than I thought possible, and I know I am going to look back and wonder if I relished these formative years, or if I let myself get sucked into the daily battles, fits, and messes. Motherhood is truly the greatest challenge and blessing of this life.  

All these thoughts arose just from visiting Dallin!  I have to say, I love the thought of being an Aunt and being able to hold these little babies as they join my extended family.  What a little treat for me as I continue in this phase of motherhood that moves beyond actually bearing children.  

Here he is!

 I love my blue dress by the by-so comfortable, like a big t-shirt!

 What a cute face!

The Small Things

 Random cute moments from the littles.....

Sara and James can be the best of playmates, and of course, one of their favorite games to play is house or restaurant. It was a mix of the two today, and this was the grand spread (using the piano bench as a table).

 Jackson has always been a fantastic climber.  We were at Krazy Air the other day, and he climbed to the top of the trampoline wall.  That doesn't mean much if you have never been to Krazy Air, but in a word, it was--Krazy!  Anyhow, I had unloaded several bags of groceries onto the table, and next thing I know, I have an extra package sitting with the cereals.....

 Just plopped himself right down in the middle of a toddler's dream land, munching on grapes right out of the unwashed bag.  That's my boy!

Signature Move

Karianna is very big into dance/gymnastics moves right now, even though she is not taking classes in either.  This is her signature move.   She has worked really hard to perfect it, and she is really proud of it-so are we!  So cool!

The Final Dive Meet

Karianna's final dive meet was today-odd that it was a Monday instead of a Wednesday, but this particular dive meet was the qualifiers for state divisionals, so kind of a big deal.  Karianna has been looking forward to this-they take the first 10 girls, and she has always placed in the top five, I think, so we felt she had a good shot!  I was a little worried though for two reasons.  First, I didn't know if I was going to make it.  She had to report for warm ups at 5:45, and I had a team meeting online from 6-7, during which I was doing a presentation on articulation.  The normal meets usual run 45 minutes behind the predicted schedule, so I figured I'd get my meeting done and zip over to the meet as quick as I could, maybe missing the first dive, but catching the last two rounds.  My second worry had to do with the fact that we just got home from vacation late last night.  I worried Karianna would be so wiped out that it would affect her performance.  Regardless, she had to work with it as best as she could, and she came back from her 7am practice saying it went great, and her scores on their little practice meet were top-notch.  

Skip to the dive meet.  Jared and Karianna left at 5:30, and I started my meeting at 6, as planned.  I texted Jared at 6:50 when the meeting was starting to wrap up to let me know where they were at with the dives.  He didn't respond (I wasn't sure if the text went through correctly since i was doing it through the computer).  In any case, I got done just after 7 and was hurriedly corralling the kids to get to the car when the door opened and Karianna and Jared came in.  ARG!  I missed the whole thing-which apparently started on time for the first time EVER!  I forgot about that when I saw Karianna's face though.  I knew right away it hadn't gone well.  She ended up getting 16th place out of about 40 girls.  She started crying as soon as she said that, and Jared filled in the details.  She over-rotated on her very first tuck dive, and it went downhill from there-she lost her confidence and struggled to do her dives with her normal skill and expertise.  

I felt so bad for Karianna.  We didn't care that she didn't get in the top 10 at all, and her performance throughout the season proves how much she excelled and how good she was!  We explained that to her, and emphasized that she was clearly not herself today after having just gotten back from vacation.  We praised her on a job well done all season long, and reminded her how proud we were of her.  Still.....she was pretty much devastated.  :(  Karianna has such a tender heart, and she puts such high expectations on herself.  We talked for a long time about allowing yourself to be sad for a bit, as that is normal and okay, but then choosing to let it go and move on, focusing on the positives, the accomplishments, and if so desired, the goals for next time around.  She was still sad at the end of our talk, but I was hopeful she would try to let it go.  

How I love Karianna.  She has such a sweet spirit, she wants to do her best at everything, and sometimes that is her biggest nemesis in life.  I see so much of myself in Karianna.  I want so desperately to take this away from her and to fill her life with every joy possible, with endless amounts of confidence that will see her through hard moments like this.  I can only guide her in the right direction and remind her of her great worth in our eyes, and in those of the Lord.  

So at the end of dive season, we are STILL cheering, whooping, hollering for Karianna and a job well-done at every single dive meet and early morning practice.  She's a champ in our eyes! 

Arriving in California!

****Disclaimer.....I took way too many pictures to just do 1 or 2 CA posts. So it will likely be a compilation of several posts rather than just a few.  I am going to order this so the first day is at the top of the blog roll...hopefully that makes it easier to read and eventually edit into a blog book!  

July 9th: Our California vacation starts today, and you could feel the excitement in the air as we got the kids up and they packed their own backpacks and blankets for the 6 hour drive to the San Diego area!  It is so uncommon for us to take a big family vacation like this....we are great with camping and day trips up north, but a trip like this-4 days/3 nights, out of state, major theme park-they just don't happen often with our large family.  We really hope to do this more often, perhaps on a yearly basis. This trip will be very telling in terms of what we are able to do together.  I'm excited!

We took off around 10am, right on schedule.  We got to the outskirts of the Phoenix metro area when we started noticing a loud vibration sound anytime we got over 70mph.  Odd.  We played around with the speeds, followed truckers, and came to the conclusion it was related to the wind.....the wind was somehow zipping through some part of the front grill and causing this vibration sound.  We resigned ourselves to going under 70 and kept going.  Another 30-45 minutes later and it was anything above 60 and the vibrations would start.  When I say they were loud, they were LOUD-like cover your ears loud.  They would start once Jared slowed down or we got behind a trucker, so again, we were sure it was related to the wind.  We pulled into a gas station, bought some zip ties, and tied down a part of the grate that seemed a bit loose.  Unfortunately that didn't work.  Going less than 60 the whole way was not going to work for us, so we decided to keep going a little longer, and if it stayed that bad, we would get off and look for a mechanic.  Sure enough, we were pulling our hair out after another half hour passed, so I got on the GPS and tracked down an Auto Zone in Blythe fairly quickly. Jared went in there to ask about local mechanics while I got the kids a quick lunch in the van.  The guys at Auto Zone gave us the names of 4 nearby mechanics, with one just a mile down the road.  We got there easily with the GPS and they were able to assess the car right away.  Jared and I were honestly super nervous.  We were really afraid it was something major, and what do we do if that's the case?  The mechanic had a teeny tiny office where the kids literally took up every chair-and a good art of the floor.  We had access to a bathroom thankfully, but not much else to do but sit and wait for the verdict. We tried to keep things positive for them.  I brought out a pack of sour patch kids and started giving them to the kids for good behavior and staying engaged in the activities they had brought.  I tried not to let the stress show.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the mechanic came back out and told us the problem was minimal:  the weather strip above the windshield was loose, and wind was catching it as it flapped in the breeze...that was causing the enormously loud vibrations.  He said he could either tape it really well (quick fix), or do the whole shebang, which would take about 2 hours.  He assured us the tape would hold really well, so we went with that option.  It took him another 45 minutes to get the tape from Auto Zone, fix the window, and test drive it to make sure it was okay.  We were supposed to pay 65 dollars for the initial consult and then whatever labor/parts cost.  He only charged us about 32 dollars for the tape and labor, which was really, really kind of him.  The receptionist told us she has never seen so many kids so well behaved-another lady in the waiting room told us the same thing.  We laughed and apologized for taking up all the chairs.  I think we were just seriously relieved we had so many kind people helping, and that it was nothing major.  We were back on the road less than two hours later, and true to the mechanics word, no more noise.  Yea!

The one negative that I will briefly mention....I took Jackson out to just walk around the building when he started getting fussy while waiting in the mechanic's office.  Jared told me Blythe wasn't a good area, but I didn't get it.....I figured, I'm just a few steps in front of the building ,what's the harm of that?  Jackson was just wandering around in front of the store, when a car drove past.  The passenger yelled something at me/us, and then threw something at us, which slammed into the wall behind me and created a huge bang.  I literally screamed, grabbed Jackson with one hand, and ducked down over him, covering my head with the other.  So, that was an overreaction, but I literally thought in that moment he had fired a gun at us.  Turns out, he threw a can of beer that had exploded upon hitting the wall behind us.  I was admittedly shaking, and learned the hard way that Blythe is not a city to mess around with.

All right, so moving on!  We ended up getting to our hotel around 6 instead of 4 as we anticipated.  We realized we would not have time to go to the beach as we had planned, so we decided to just get checked into the hotel, order pizza, and have fun exploring the hotel room and hanging out before our big day at Seaworld.  The kids did SO well on the car ride-I was super impressed.  We got checked in at the Welks Resort, which is actually a time share-they just advertise the rooms that don't have a buyer for that week as a normal hotel room.  Our room was a 2 bed/2 bath suite with a full kitchen, laundry, private patio, dining room, and family room.  It was, by far, the best room we have ever stayed in, and we will return anytime we visit southern CA.  The furnishings were beautiful, and the layout would work really well for our large family.  The kitchen was true to description-fridge, oven, stove, all cooking utensils, cleaning supplies-the whole entire thing.  We would end up eating every possible meal in our room because we could-saved so much money that way!  I even ran a load of laundry when I needed to wash out swim towels before our last day. Just awesome.  The bathrooms were beautiful-a shower I would put in my own house, and a deep garden tub that made me realize how much I missed having a soaking tub like that.  JD, Jordan, and James settled in one bedroom with two full beds, and Sara and Karianna took over the family room on a pull out queen bed.  Jackson slept in the closet in mine and Jared's room, which worked out very well.  All in all, it was a fantastic area, and we were super, super pleased with it!

The private patio-the doors behind lead to the boys' bedroom.

The main entrance to the patio-you can see all the way into the kitchen, and the entire wall of the family room was shutters that opened up to the patio.

A better view of the kitchen-that counter Jared is sitting at was my favorite part.

The family room where the girls slept.

The boys' room....

duthe shower that I loved!!!!!

Another view of the bar/counter area.

Dining table/room

Enjoying the patio with the little boys.

This is the green belt outside of the patio-the kids spent a good half hour racing up and down it, and wrestling with each other.

in front of the green belt was a little vineyard.  I kid you not.  The grapes were super little, but it was neat to see!

I love Jordan's zombie shirt!!!!

Getting set up in a race!

Needless to say, despite our delay, we really enjoyed the first half day of our time in CA!  Next up:  Seaworld!!!!!

Day 1 of Seaworld: The Arrival, Polar Bears, and Beluga Whales

July 10th:  We are here!

We got to Seaworld right at 9am after driving about 40 minutes from our hotel.  Have I mentioned how much we LOVE our GPS?  It has saved us so much time and worries abut finding the locations we are going to.  We missed a turn while heading to Seaworld and ended up at the coast...I wasn't complaining, it was overcast, windy, and the waves were AMAZING!!!!  Anyhow, thanks to the GPS, it just rerouted us, and we got to Seaworld just fine, no issues.  So again, thank heavens for the GPS!

Anyhow, we had our tickets already printed up, and got checked in rather quickly.  We hit up the bathrooms and took some pictures before applying the kids' tattoos with our cell phone on them and having a detailed talk about staying together.  And with that, we were striding under the big wave and heading into the heart of Seaworld!

We stopped at the pools right in front of the entrance first while Jared and I studied the map to plan our course of action.  I was super impressed with how excited the kids were just to see the leopard sharks, feeder fish, and crabs!  What were they going to think when we saw the cool stuff?  LOL!

They all tried to touch, but only Jordan and I were brave enough to actually do it.

The park was really not very busy for the first few hours, so we got to several key attractions very quickly.  We started with Wild Arctic.  Jared took the four older kids to the motion ride, and I went with James and Jackson straight to the polar bears and beluga whales.  James loved the helicopter!

Both of the bears were out when we got to the exhibit.  This one was pacing the log back and forth, over and over, and he kept coming right up to the window, which gave us a great view!

The other one was sitting on a huge stump right next to the window.  James sat here for quite a while just watching him...it was then that I noticed James' hair matches the polar bear's to near perfection! Kindred spirits!

Playing in the polar bear cave before the huge growl scared them out of it!

 So, I'm kind of obsessed with beluga whales.  They are my favorite animals on the face of the planet.  They are just....magical.  I could watch them all day long, and both James and Jackson seriously, seriously shared my sentiment.  When we finally left the viewing area, Jackson pulled out of Karianna's hand, shrieked, and laid down on the floor-not crying, he just laid there and looked up at Karianna, as if daring her to try to make him leave!

I took tons of pictures of these guys watching the whales, and I have to include all of them....did I say I love beluga whales?  I do!

Every now and then the whale would circle over to the window and literally rub up against it as it passed-those were the coolest moments!

Up close and personal!

You can literally see the body of the whale pressed up against the glass!

My favorite shot-you can see the whale's eye and the line of his mouth, as if he was personally saying hi to us!

We met up with Jared and the older kids after the motion ride was over and they had their chance to greet the polar bears and whales up close and personal.  We could have spent all day here.

Saying hi to Jared!

We took this same picture many years ago when JD was just a baby and Karianna was a little girl-not even 3!  We sure have grown!